How Long Do You Want To Live?

Ok, this is a non-juggling, non-running and non-joggling post. But it’s a holiday so I just feel like doing something different.A combination of this story about coins and the fact that this is American Independence Day inspired me to write this post.

I’ve previously mentioned that I would like to live until I’m 107. Why this age? Well, I will reach this age in 2076. For years I’ve collected bicentennial quarters. I figure by the country’s tricentennial those quarters will be worth millions!

Not so according to the guy at Mental Floss. He says that old American coins really aren’t worth that much. For example, a Lincoln penny from 1933 is worth at most $100.

So, my plan for becoming a millionaire when I’m 107 is probably dead. But I’ll still endeavor to live that long. Besides, I’m going to be a millionaire long before 2076.

Someone’s math isn’t working real great.
From your example. a 1933 Penny worth $100 in 2007 is a 10000x appreciation over 73 years.

If that can be assumed to stay constant, Appreciation from 1976 to 2076 would be 13698x. Meaning your Bicentenial quarter should be worth Approx $3424 by 2076. Now, you said you’ve been collecting them. How many do you have? It will take 292 to be worth a Million.

What this doesn’t take into account is:
A – Lots of people have hordes of Bicentinneal Quarters. Meaning they will probably not appreciate as much as your std 1933 penny that was used and then taken out of circulation. Those items MADE to be collected often are not worth as much as similar items that weren’t expected to be collected.

B – Americans love collectables. I could see Bicentennial stuff having a big increase before the Tricentennial.

I guess I wasn’t looking at it in terms of how much the coin was originally worth. I thought things like age and condition would be much more important. For example, a penny from 1850 would be worth about the same as a nickel from 1850.

[…] Exercising helped people live longer. This one is most interesting to me as it is my goal to live until I’m 107. After 19 years of the study, 15% of the runners died while 34% of the non-runners […]